Jack Layton should remember one thing when girding his loins as the defender of public health care: Know where you're pointin' that thing even if it is entirely Olivia's decision.

Jack Layton attacked Paul Martin for failing to stop the creeping privatisation of medicare. I put together a PC health care fact sheet, which compiled a large number of health statistics for Tory candidates. While compiling that fact sheet I learned something:

All sectors of Canada's health system have remained relatively constant in public-private mix for the last 30 years. The only reason that the private sector is growing as a proportion of overall health costs is that the services that weren't covered under medicare in the first place have become a more important part of the health care picture, namely drugs and non-physician medical professionals. The propotion of private phyisian spending was 1.7% in '82 and '02.

Jack, there has been no private sector encroachment on medicare and you are being disingenuous to assert that there has been. The Chaouli decision is the supreme court saying fund it properly or why the hell bother. There is no creeping privatisation, because the Canada Health Act is the not withstanding clause of medicare. Sure you can violate it, but at extreme political peril.

Please Jack: Quit creating straw men on the right. Medicare is not under any serious degree of attack. NAFTA is a bigger threat to socialised medicine than the 1 dollar out of every 59 spent on private physicians. Even wild-eyed-anti-po-mo-neo-waffler-magenta-tory me can tell you that much.